This invention relates to a beam delivery system. It relates particularly to a laser beam delivery system for delivering a relatively high power laser beam from a stationary laser to a movable point in space at a work station and under the control of a robot.
Relatively high power lasers are commonly used in industrial operations for operations such as cutting and welding. A number of cutting or welding operations may be required at different locations on an assembly line, and robots are coming into increasing use for accomplishing such varied but repetitive work station operations. The robots usually are mounted on a fixed base and have a shoulder joint, a wrist joint and an articulated arm mechanism which extends between the shoulder joint and the wrist joint and which includes an elbow joint.
Prior art beam delivery systems constructed for use with such robots have included a beam guide mechanism which mounts the beam delivery system on each joint of the robot. These prior art beam delivery systems have, in effect, used the joints of the robot as the path to convey the beam. These prior art beam delivery systems are not very flexible if it is desired to change robots. These prior art beam delivery systems also required a large number of mirrors. Each mirror in the system introduces a small but significant amount of power loss.
Prior art beam delivery systems which utilized articulated beam guide tubes also introduced problems of random inertial forces. When the tubes are moved quickly from one location to the other and accelerations are produced by such quick movements, the inertial forces produced in such articulated tube systems have caused problems of time delays in obtaining final positioning of the tubes.